Following the recent discussions on the Indigenous Languages and Techology [ILAT] list, it is evident that facebook, as part of "language revitalisation" efforts, has come to play a role. Whether this role is to further a cause, to coordinate communities, or to act as a platform for academic study and statistical analysis, it has become a subject of interest among indigenous language teachers and linguists.
The examples of facebook pages are numerous, they range from the community approach of uniting same language speakers in a foreign country to specifically organising indigenous language speakers in general regardless of location. Furthermore, there are informative groups offering information on various regions with great lingistic diversity and cultural variation. The variation presented in some groups often includes maps such as the Aboriginal Australia Map by David Horton and a linguistic map of the northern american territories which showcases the incredible number of languages spread throughout the Australian National Territory and North America.
The virtual Anishinaabemowin & Cree lessons provided by www.learnojibweonline.blogspot.com also take advantage of the social network website to organise and announce lesson dates and times for the students as well as being a forum for discussion.
However, the online presence of language groups and projects or rather the study of the impact of such groups on languages are still new and sparse. Courtenay Honeycutt and Daniel Cunliffe in their study The Use of Welsh Langauge on Facebookprovide an insight into the role, and effects of facebook/online groups on languages.
Searching for “indigenous languages on facebook” in a search engine, the results will show a great variety of groups providing information and knowledge on many regions of varying linguistic diversity, some notable regions and countries of great linguistic diversity include Papua New Guinea, North America, Australia, Pakistan and Spain just to name a few.
With the constant growth and widespread use of social network sites this relatively new topic could prove to be an important area of language revitalisation.
Linguapax